The Duke’s Children
The Duke’s Children by Anthony Trollope, published by Penguin Books in 1993, is a significant work in the Palliser series, comprising 759 pages. This edition presents a narrative centered around the Duke of Omnium, who grapples with profound loneliness following the death of the Duchess. Left to care for his three children—Lord Silverbridge, Lord Gerald Palliser, and Lady Mary Palliser—the Duke faces the challenges of their upbringing and the evolving social landscape that surrounds them.
Readers will find a detailed exploration of the Duke’s attempts to navigate his children’s desires and societal expectations. The eldest son, recently returned from Oxford, and his siblings each embody the tensions between tradition and progress, as illustrated by the competing claims of Lady Mabel Grex and Isabel Boncassen. This novel, the last in the Palliser series, offers insights into the complexities of family dynamics and the British way of life during a pivotal historical period.
Official synopsis Publisher
‘No-one probably, ever felt himself to be more alone in the world than our old friend, the Duke of Omnium, when the Duchess died.’ Her death leaves to the Duke the care of his three willful children and to the children the continuing social education of their father. The eldest, Lord Silverbridge, has been sent down from Oxford; Lord Gerald Palliser is doing indifferently well at Cambridge; and Lady Mary Palliser, the only daughter, is set on what seems to her father an unsuitable marriage. While the Duke must learn to accept that ‘nothing will ever be quite what it used to be’, his heir must acquire, his father hopes, a respect for justice, self-sacrifice, and honour, and a suitable wife. The rival claims of Lady Mabel Grex and Isabel Boncassen, the American granddaughter of a dock-worker, are emblematic of the claims on the Palliser family: tradition against progress, duty against natural feelings. The Duke’s Children is the sixth and last of the Palliser novels (1864-80), which together provide an exceptionally rich exposé of the British way of life during its most prestigious period.
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